


The "Prince" of Aoba Johsai

by ChaosComet, OctarineTiger



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Feel free to ask us to tag, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:34:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24954640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChaosComet/pseuds/ChaosComet, https://archiveofourown.org/users/OctarineTiger/pseuds/OctarineTiger
Summary: Oikawa seems off one day after it's revealed there's a breakup.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not good with tagging things? And summaries? But hey, hope you enjoy!

Girls could only dream of dating Aoba Johsai's volleyball captain, Oikawa Toru. They could get lost in his soft, brown eyes, and would swoon over his smooth voice. There was something about him that was just so..irresistible. He’d had a girlfriend for a while, but rumors about a breakup had been spreading, and the girls of Aoba Johsai thought they might have a chance at last. However there was one problem, the handsome prince was only close with one princess. That "princess" was his childhood friend Iwaizumi Hajime.

\-----

"I can't believe it, Iwa-chan!" Oikawa sighed as he plopped himself down on the gym bench. Hajime was bumping a volleyball against a nearby wall. “My girlfriend, she-”

"What?” Hajime scoffed, still focused on the ball. He was already used to this routine. Oikawa would complain about things, then Hajime would soon enough wind up berating him for being annoying. “You got dumped by her this time?" 

Oikawa went uncharacteristically silent, meaning Hajime was probably right.

The silence caused the latter to turn towards Oikawa in disbelief, causing the carefully controlled volleyball to hit Hajime’s face and land on the ground nearby. Disregarding the fact that his face was throbbing, he shouted to his friend. "You have to be kidding me, Trashykawa! You're so popular, it's stupid! Why would she want to dump you?!"

Oikawa suddenly got all petulant and pouted. "You’re so mean, Iwa-chan!” His gaze drifted down. “But apparently I spent too much of my time with volleyball, so she left me." He shrugged, his voice tinged with defeat.

"How do you spend too much time with volleyball?! I thought you told her you were on the team!" Hajime exclaimed.

"I did!" Oikawa angrily stood from the bench.

"Then why would she leave you!?" Hajime shot back. 

Those words must have hit a sore spot because Oikawa shut up immediately. This also caused Hajime to be a bit suspicious of his best friend. Oikawa looked quite mad at him, no sight of his usual playful demeanor. He was serious. 

Oikawa sighed and sat back down, covering his face in his hands. Neither of them said anything else. This wasn’t Oikawa being over-dramatic either, he seemed genuinely upset.

A few underclassmen must have overheard their not very well contained argument because there was audible whispering that was making the silence between the two a lot more awkward.

 _Fuck.. what even happened earlier?_ Hajime found himself worrying over the unusual behavior of his friend once again. _Oikawa was rarely this quiet…_

Almost like he was reading his mind, Oikawa broke the silence. "I'll tell you later, Iwa-chan. Not here."


	2. Chapter 2

"Not here?" Hajime repeated softly. Was the secret worse than he thought? Why couldn't he just say it here? All of these thoughts made his head hurt. What was going on?  
Oikawa got up from the bench and started walking towards the men’s locker room. The only noises between them were volleyballs pounding the floor, the squeak of sneakers, and the occasional yell coming from their teammates. As Oikawa continued to walk away, the guilt building up in Hajime’s chest grew.

Hajime was ripped out of his thoughts as he heard a familiar voice.

“Another lover's quarrel?” 

He turned to see Hanamaki Takahiro, one of Aoba Johsai’s wing spikers and Hajime’s close friends. 

"What did you guys fight about this time?" Hanamaki asked, smirking slightly. What a fucking loser. Who laughs at their own jokes? 

Hajime hesitated. Should he tell? He knew he shouldn’t, but maybe having someone else look at the situation might make it make more sense. Or maybe Oikawa would prefer that whatever he   
was hiding was kept a secret? Man, now his head really hurts.

Hajime was cautious, but spoke after a few moments of silence, “Have you heard that rumor? The one about Oikawa and his girlfriend?”

Hanamaki looked surprised, “Yeah, so?”

He decided to lie, “Well, Oikawa was being whiny about it and it was getting on my nerves.”

Hanamaki laughed, “Seriously? That’s what was making him so depressed?”

Hajime nodded, slightly relieved that the lie had worked. 

Hanamaki grinned like the smug bastard he could be, “Well, that’s our captain for you. But I’ve gotta say, his girlfriend must have beaten him down pretty bad to get him storming off like that.”

“Yeah, I guess…” Hajime mumbled.

Hanamaki’s eyes were focused on something over Hajime’s shoulder, “Oh look.”

Hajime turned his head, following Hanamaki’s line of sight. Oikawa was leaving the locker room, changed out of his practice clothes, and back into his school uniform.

“Speak of the devil! Looks like the drama queen has emerged to grace us with his presence.” Hanamaki was still intently watching what Oikawa was doing, “It looks like he’s asking Coach something.”

And so he was. He looked slightly troubled as he talked quickly to their coach.

“Coach, do you think I could go home? I don’t feel very well…”

Looking away from the practice, Coach Nobuteru said, “You weren’t looking in the best shape today...I think that’s probably best. Just make sure you practice some when you get back.” Nobuteru laughed at his upcoming joke in an attempt to lighten the mood. “Can’t have the captain be underprepared for the big game soon.”

“Yeah…” Oikawa mumbled, looking down a bit. 

“You and Iwaizumi are good friends, yes? Have him walk you home. Just to be safe.” Coach Nobuteru said.

Oikawa visibly stiffened but nodded. Hajime and Hanamaki scrambled to look natural when the captain started heading in their direction, although Oikawa wasn’t really paying them much attention.

“Can you walk me home, Iwa-chan?”

He wouldn’t meet Hajime’s eyes, instead, he kept them trained on the floor. It was unlike Oikawa to be this quiet and it was making Hajime feel uncomfortable. After all, this wasn’t the first time Oikawa had been like this today. 

“Take you home? Already?” Hajime stared at Oikawa, confused. He took a quick look over at Hanamaki, who gave him a small shrug. Glancing back to Oikawa, he sighed. “Fine. You have me on your side. Just let me get changed first, alright?”


	3. Chapter 3

The walk to Oikawa’s house was uncomfortable, to say the least. Oikawa was never quiet on their walks home. He was always talking about something whether it be volleyball, his classes, the underclassmen, things he hated, things he liked; Oikawa was never not talking. So much so that the fact that they were walking in absolute silence was making Hajime nervous. It certainly didn’t help that he was still dwelling on what Oikawa had said earlier. 

_"I’ll tell you later, Iwa-chan. Not here.”_

The conversation still bugged him, but he didn’t want to bring it up. Though whether it was out of respect for Oikawa’s personal issues or fear of what he might have to say, he didn’t know. 

And so, they walked in silence.

It couldn’t have been more than a fifteen-minute walk, but Hajime was almost relieved when Oikawa’s house came into view. 

“See you later, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa mumbled, and he turned into his driveway.

Hajime watched him retreating back for a moment longer then he realized that he couldn’t just let Oikawa go so easily.

“W-Wait! Weren’t you going to tell me what’s been going on?”

“Huh…?”

Oikawa turned back to him, visibly surprised by the latter’s outburst. But he seemed to realize that Hajime was right. 

“Ah-“ Oikawa lightly punched the side of his head as some sort of joke punishment for his forgetfulness. “My bad.”

“Quit acting like a shoujo manga protagonist and ask your mom if I can come over.”

Oikawa looked like he wanted to say no, but bit his lip, “If..if you want to, Iwa-chan.” He then stared back rather intently at his front door, further evidencing his hesitation. After a few beats of uncomfortable silence, Oikawa knocked on the door. Hajime, then realizing it was a bit awkward for him to just stand in Oikawa’s family’s driveway, ran up to go over to his friend’s side.

Soon enough, someone came and opened the door. It was Oikawa’s mother- who looked a lot like him really. She looked rather confused as to why her son was home so early but she came to the doorway nevertheless. “Toru-chan..?” Her confusion turned into mild concern. “It’s only barely four. Doesn’t your practice end at six tonight?” 

“I,” Oikawa sighed. His gaze drifted to Hajime, then down at the floor, “I wasn’t feeling too good..so Iwa-chan offered to take me home.”

Oikawa’s mother’s gaze also shifted toward Hajime and gave him a comforting smile. “Thank you for taking her home, Hajime-chan.” 

_“Her?”_ Hajime repeated in his head but shook his thoughts away. Must’ve been a mistake... 

“It’s no problem, Ms. Oikawa.” Hajime paused, looking over at Oikawa. Jabbing his elbow into Oikawa’s side, he gestured his head towards the guy’s mother in an attempt to remind Oikawa why he had to have followed him home in the first place. 

“Ah-” Oikawa rubbed at his side a bit, looking back up at his mother. “Ahaha, mom, i- is it cool if Iwa-chan stays over?” He had a small smile slowly come up.

“Sure,” said Oikawa’s mother, reaching up to mess with her son’s hair. She looked over at Hajime again. “Don’t work her too hard.”

_There it was again._ He didn’t understand why Oikawa’s mom kept calling Oikawa a her. He stayed quiet so as not to make things weird.

“Ahaha~ You always keep me in check, right, Iwa-chan?” Oikawa’s joking side seemed to come back out of nowhere, much to Hajime’s shock. 

“Y- yeah..” Hajime nodded, putting his book-bag down.

Oikawa, who was walking up the stairs to his room already, looked back at Hajime, “You coming?”

Hajime straightened, scowling, “I was putting my bag down, stupid. I have to take my shoes off too. "Don’t rush me or I’ll hit you.”

Oikawa laughed, “You’re so mean, Iwa-chan! You know you’d do that anyway!”

Hajime scowled more but didn’t say anything. He caught up to Oikawa, a knot of anxiety settling in his stomach. He hoped that whatever Oikawa was going to tell him wasn’t too horrible. He shook the thought away. It was now or never.

“Let’s go.”


	4. Chapter 4

On the way up to his room, Oikawa seemed to be in a better mood, humming quietly to himself. Hajime, on the other hand, had appeared as though confusion was written across his face with a bold marker. His brow furrowed, unable to keep his thoughts deep down anymore. 

“Hey,” Hajime tried to grab at Oikawa’s hand to get him out of his daze, which was super effective. _”Oikawa.”_

“Hmm? Yeah?~” Oikawa paused his humming to look back at him, almost looking as puzzled as the latter was. But, seeing his friend’s completely serious face made him stifle a laugh. “Pffff! I- Iwa-chan, you should see your face right now-” He couldn’t hold back his laughter. He was still laughing, even as he pushed the door to his room open and entered.

Hajime’s expression intensified, and for privacy’s sake, he shut the door to the bedroom behind him, “Damnit, Oikawa. Can’t you be serious for one goddamn second?”

Wiping his eyes, Oikawa said, “I can’t help it! You’re always so grumpy looking! But now you look like you’ve eaten a lemon!”

And with that, he dissolved into more laughter. Hajime could feel a tension headache coming on. 

“Will you just shut up for a second?!”

Oikawa placed a hand over his mouth, obviously trying to keep from further laughter.

“Your mom.” 

Oikawa quirked an eyebrow and took his hand from his mouth, no longer laughing, “What about my mom?”

“She kept calling you a girl. Is she okay?” 

That seemed to shut Oikawa up. It was just like the feeling in the gym, empty silence between the two for a moment that felt a lot longer than it really was. The air was thick and awkward. Neither of them said anything.

Finally, Oikawa said tightly, “I think you misheard, Iwa-chan. My mom is fine, thank you. If you’re going to come here and make accusations I think it would be best if you left.”

Hajime stared at his friend without words, a little taken aback by Oikawa’s cold tone. All day today, Oikawa had been acting strangely. Literally just earlier, he was like his old self, and now he was being weird again? Hajime shook his head. _What the actual fuck is going on?_

Oikawa shook his head, “I’m sorry that was rude of me.” 

“No kidding,” Hajime replied, still stunned. He scoffed lightly under his breath. “What’s been getting into you, man?” 

“Nothing. I’m fine, Iwa-chan, just a little stressed. We are graduating soon, after all.” Oikawa smiled, a little weakly at that.

Hajime scans Oikawa’s face. It’s obvious that he is not fine, but if he wants to be stupid about it, he can be stupid about it. He’ll talk when he wants to. There was no point possibly further upsetting his friend. 

“If you don’t want to talk about what’s going on, that’s your deal. I’ll leave if you really want me to.” Hajime said, “I just don’t want you overworking yourself like you did in middle school, man.”

“Aha,” Oikawa laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck, “I remember that.. you headbutted me after I nearly hit Tobio-chan, didn’t you, Iwa-chan?” 

“You were pushing yourself too hard, dumbass! You don’t always gotta be better than everyone else at everything. Do what you wanna do for once.” 

Oikawa got a far off look in his eyes, and repeated softly, “Do what _I_ want for once?”

Hajime furrowed his eyebrows, “You look like you’re scheming something, Trashykawa..” 

Oikawa snapped back from his daze for a moment, clearly preoccupied just seconds earlier. “Huh?” A nervous, little grin crossed his face. “No idea what you’re talking about, Iwa-chan.” 

Right before Hajime was going to tell Oikawa off for being stubborn, there was a soft knock on the door, and Oikawa’s mom poked her head into the room, “Toru-chan, it’s getting kind of late. I don’t want your parents to worry about you, Hajime-chan.”

Hajime’s eyes widened a bit, realizing that, yes, it was later than he had originally thought. The sun wasn’t quite set yet, but the sky had that pre-sunset quality to it. The clouds were turning orange and the sky was more indigo than blue.

“Oh. Of course Mrs. Oikawa.” he bowed politely, “Thank you for having me over.”

She waved her hand, “Any time Hajime-chan! You’re always welcome here!”

Hajime nodded his head and said another thanks. With Oikawa at his heels, he went downstairs to collect his bag.

“See you tomorrow.”

Oikawa hummed, “Yep. See you tomorrow, Iwa-chan.”

He slipped on his shoes and exited the door, looking behind him once he got to the end of the driveway. Before the door shut completely, he could see Oikawa talking excitedly to his mother, waving his hands around. She seemed just as excited as he was, nodding enthusiastically. She said something and Oikawa tackled her in a hug. The door shut with a soft snap that echoed in the quiet neighborhood.

Hajime shook his head and looked straight ahead of him. He’d never seen Oikawa that excited for anything, at least not in a long while that is.

“What the hell is going on?”


	5. Chapter 5

Hajime woke up the next morning to the noise of his phone going off. Upon further investigation with his half-lidded, tired eyes, he noticed he had plenty of texts from Oikawa. What was he doing up so early to be texting him so much? Flipping open his phone only led to him getting blinded by his dumb, bright screen. 

After his eyes finally adjusted, Hajime could make out his friend’s messages.

> heyyy iwa-chan ♡ sent 7:05am   
> cant walk you w/u to school- o°(TωT)°o sent 7:06am  
> doctor’s appt- sent 7:06am  
> boring boring (>_<); sent 7:07am  
> maybe see u after school?~☆ sent 7:07am

Typical Oikawa, texting all cutesy and shit. Hajime sighed and texted back before it was too late.

< You wake me up for this? sent 7:12am  
> uwaaa sorry sorry… >< sent 7:13am  
< You better not be skipping school to talk to girls. sent 7:13am  
> no nooo i really have the appt- sent 7:15am  
< If I catch you, I’ll tell Coach on you. You’re supposed   
to be the reliable captain. sent 7:16am  
> eeehhh?? dont be so mean iwa-chan （´･△･｀） sent 7:18am  
< I’m serious. sent 7:20am  
< ...I’ll hit you. sent 7:21am  
> dont threaten me!! sent 7:22am  
> scary iwa-chan is no fun! sent 7:22am  
“God,” Hajime thought, rolling his eyes at his friend’s stupidity. “He’s such an idiot.”  
< Shut up, Shittykawa. sent 7:24am  
> aaah my moms tellin me to get off my phone gtg sent 7:24am  
> ttyl iwa-chaaan~ (∩◕▽◕)⊃━☆ﾟ.*･｡ sent 7:25am

With that, Hajime snapped his phone shut and dragged himself out of bed to get ready for school. He sighed to himself. 

This was going to be a quiet morning without Oikawa, huh? Hajime’s thoughts drifted. He then shook his head. It was only going to be in the morning. Why’re you worrying so much about him..?

Moments later, Hajime was still trying to fix himself up even after trial and error to get his uniform to look nice. He scrutinized his reflection then looked over at his clock. It was almost time to go already. Leaving his tie loose and shirt untucked, he gave up and trudged downstairs. 

When he made it down, he noticed his mother was still making food.

“Ah-“ his mom paused whatever she was doing and greeted him. “Hajime, you’re a lil’ late this morning.” 

Hajime sat down and mumbled an apology. His mom handed him a bowl of omurice. It smelled nice... but he wasn't feeling too hungry. But he wasn’t one to complain to his mom so he still took it nevertheless. 

He indulged himself a little. The taste was as nearly as good as it looked, surprisingly. He continued eating quietly, feeling a little bit better.

After a moment of silence between mother and son, his mom spoke up. “Say,” she took a sip from her coffee mug, gesturing her head towards the back door. “Isn’t Toru-kun supposed to be here by now?”

Hajime paled and nearly choked on his meal. 

“What’s up with you?” his mom stared at him, caught off guard by his reaction from mentioning his friend’s name. “Did you two fight or somethin’?”

Hajime shook his head rather quickly. “H- he just had a doctor's thing this morning, ma,” he mumbled a bit. “...he texted me earlier.”

His mother laughed a little. “Then you’ll have to get going soon- you’re normally rushed out the door by now.”

She was right; Oikawa typically pushed him out the door by now. It was oddly quiet without him. He shook it out of his head and focused on finishing up his breakfast. 

\----

The walk to school was weird. Hajime wasn’t sure that he liked it. Yeah, sometimes Oikawa talked too much for his liking, but the act of walking to school with someone was comforting. It was more about the presence of someone there, and to not have anyone with him was odd. He and Oikawa had walked to school together for as long as he could remember. The upset in his routine bothered him.  
As he walked in silence, he found himself wondering what Oikawa was doing at the doctor. Not that it was any of his business, of course, but he couldn’t help being curious. He also wondered about what he saw last night. Oikawa and his mother seemed so excited. Maybe the two things were related.

Hajime snorted. As if. Oikawa was too vain for something like plastic surgery. He shook his head. Too much deep thinking. He’d rather not have to strain too hard to figure dumb shit out. 

\----

He couldn’t say school was weird, thankfully, though many of the girls noticed Oikawa’s absence and it was clear that he was sorely missed.

The peace, for lack of a better word, didn’t last long though; by lunchtime, Oikawa was back. He’d stopped by Hajime’s classroom during break specifically to let him know. He looked...different. Not physically, no, but his demeanor had changed. He seemed much, much happier than he had yesterday. He was practically beaming.

“What’s up with you?” Hajime asked during lunch, opening his bento.

Oikawa looked up at him, chopsticks suspended in midair, “What d’ya mean, Iwa-chan? I’m fine.”  
And to prove his point he grinned, stuffing his food in his mouth.

“You’re just...never mind it doesn’t matter.”

Oikawa shrugged and continued eating. Quite quickly they were joined by Matsukawa and Hanamaki and lunch became, once again, a loud and rowdy affair.


	6. Chapter 6

A couple of months rolled by, and Hajime could tell something was off with his friend. He found himself staring at Oikawa too much, meaning to or not. There was just... something different, actually in his appearance this time. As awkward as the concept of staring at his childhood friend (possibly for no reason) was, getting caught in the act by previously mentioned friend was probably worse.

“What ya lookin’ at, Iwa-chan?” Oikawa paused his walking and got in front of Hajime. “Hellooo? Earth to Iwa-chaaan~” He then shook a hand over his friend’s face, trying to snap him out of   
whatever daze the latter was in. “Am I that magnetic that I’m affecting you?”

Hajime soon noticed whatever Oikawa was trying to do and swiped the hand down, not wanting to bring attention to himself. Dragging Oikawa’s wrist down unintentionally led to Hajime taking a closer look at his friend’s face, even if for a brief moment. Did he look..younger?

“Did you get plastic surgery or some shit?” Hajime blurted out his thoughts, hitting himself in the back of the head after realizing what he had said.

“Eh?” Oikawa looked genuinely at a loss from what he had said.

Not wanting to make things more awkward, Hajime turned to apologize for such a dumb question. “Hey Oikawa, I’m sor-“

When Hajime caught a glimpse of his friend’s face, there was a sly smile across Oikawa’s face without even a hint of faking it.

“Ohoho~ I think you’re just jealous of my youthful complexion, Iwa-chan,” he said, batting his eyelashes all innocent like some anime girl and putting a hand to his cheek. 

To think whatever the hell Oikawa just did was out of nowhere, Oikawa somehow turning stone serious just added to the absurdity.

“Hey,” He purposefully deepened his voice for dramatic effect. “I read somewhere you’ll get premature wrinkles if you look like this.” Oikawa moved his two index fingers to his eyebrows and turned them down to look as though he was annoyed. He even pouted to look extra like a certain someone.

Hajime caught on that Oikawa was making fun of him and promptly smacked his friend upside the head. 

“Ou- ouch! Why do you always hit me, Iwa-chan?!” Oikawa feigned taking offense, back to his normal voice then shaking his fist back at Hajime. “You won’t get girls if you look grumpy all the time, you know!”

Hajime rolled his eyes and sighed, not fully listening. “Dramatic as usual.” 

Before Hajime could tell Oikawa off that he didn’t care about girls, coincidentally, a female classmate started running over to intervene.

“ _Oh. Sweet. Lord._ ” Hajime thought and peered over Oikawa’s shoulder, seeing the girl. “You have got to be kidding me.” It was slightly amusing, how ridiculous the coincidence was. But, more than anything, it was annoying.

The girl was one of Oikawa’s groupies, which only was going to make things more obnoxious. Not like that this was anything out of the ordinary.. The girls here fawned over him like he was some kind of prince. Aside from his absent days, Oikawa somehow always was caught by girls. 

“Why’re you so mean to Oikawa-senpai, Hajime-kun?” The girl complained, clinging to Oikawa’s arm and staring at Hajime- the meanie who dared to hurt her precious senpai. “You two are always fighting.”

Hajime glared back up at his friend without a word, visibly annoyed and not taking any of that bullshit. The girl seemed kind of taken aback by Hajime’s scary, dark aura and leaned into Oikawa closer.

Oikawa carefully removed his arm from the girl’s grasp, “Iwa-chan has a lot of passion. Sometimes he just can’t hold it in. I think he’s jealous of how cool I am.”

Hajime scoffed and grabbed Oikawa by the ear, “Jealous, am I? Let’s see how jealous I am when you get scolded by Coach for being late to practice.”

\- -

As Hajime had predicted, Oikawa definitely got the verbal smackdown from both of their coaches. No way Oikawa could worm his way out of this one. There was not much time until the Inter-High Tournament; you’d think the captain of the team of all people would be paying more attention.   
It would have been a little bit funny if it wasn’t so serious. And if Hajime wasn’t still trying to figure out exactly what it was that was different about Oikawa. He was distracted during practice, something that _never_ happened.

Despite Hajime being preoccupied, Oikawa seemed remarkably unfazed. In fact, Oikawa seemed even more focused on practice than usual. His heightened concentration brought out the best in the team, so they were playing even better than usual. 

Hajime didn’t want to break the flow of their practice, so he tried his hardest to push down the low-level anxiety and confusion that had been simmering in his subconscious for several days now. It was almost a relief when practice ended, their coaches praising their extra good performance. 

Hajime wished they would stop talking. He just wanted to go home and go to sleep. A headache was forming.

The locker room was...rowdy, which did nothing for the migraine that was pounding behind his eyes. You’d think that it would be quiet after long, hard hours of practice, but that was not the case today. The first years seemed to be working through their mounting anxiety about the Inter-High by being louder and rowdier, which only served to rile up the second years too. Like he had found himself already so many times, Hajime was looking at Oikawa. There was something…

It _wasn’t_ his imagination. He was...softer looking. As embarrassing as it was to say...er...think. His hips were fuller and his arms were less defined. And his chest…

“Whatcha looking at, Iwa-chan?”

He jumped a mile and snapped his eyes back to his locker, “Nothing! Just spacing out…”

Oikawa raised an eyebrow, “You sure have been spacing out a lot. Are you sleeping okay, Iwa-chan? You know, us teenagers need more sleep to function.”

Hajime snorted, “Speak for yourself, dumbass.”

Oikawa pretended to look offended, then grinned, a real, big grin, and laughed. Hajime was taken aback for a moment. That was...maybe the first time in a long time he’d seen a real smile out of his friend, not one of the fake, painted-on smiles he did for the girls who fawned over him or the team. Whatever it was that had changed was really changing everything, wasn’t it?

A spike of pain shot through Hajime’s head. He sighed. It felt like the universe was scolding him for not understanding something, which was pissing him off. How the fuck was he supposed to figure anything out when he didn’t know what was going on? 

His irritation must have shown, because as he stalked out of the locker room, he heard Kindaichi ask nervously, “Is Iwaizumi-san okay, Oikawa-san?”

He scoffed as the door shut and didn’t hear Oikawa’s answer. He waited impatiently for Oikawa to finish changing so they could leave. He searched his bag for something to relieve his headache but came up empty-handed. His mood worsened. Finally, Oikawa emerged from the locker room, grinning. 

His smile dropped when he saw Hajime, “Iwa-chan, are you okay? I know you said you’re fine, but you look awful.”

“Headache,” Hajime mumbled. 

Oikawa perked up, and started digging around in his bag, “Hang on, I think I have Tylenol in here somewhere…”

Hajime watched half-heartedly as Oikawa set his bag on the ground and shifted his things around. 

He caught a glimpse of an orange pill bottle. Oikawa stiffened and pushed it to the bottom of his bag. Hajime pretended he didn’t see it, even as a thrill of anxiety went through him. Oikawa made a triumphant noise and held up a small bottle of Tylenol.

“Here you go!”

Hajime took it with a small thanks, then popped two pills dry. They stuck in his throat for a moment, unable to get around the lump that was forming. He handed back the bottle.

They walked home in silence.

\--

Hajime couldn’t sleep. The image of a small orange bottle was burned into his retinas. Why was he feeling anxious about this? It wasn’t his business what Oikawa put into his body. None of his business at all. Nope. He wasn’t worried about it.

Except he was. 

They couldn’t be steroids, at least not the kind that beefed you up and made you angry. They could be stronger pain meds for his knee. Maybe for when the Tylenol didn’t do the trick. Hell, maybe Oikawa had an ear infection. Hajime mashed his face into his pillow.

No use worrying about it. The bubble of anxiety in his gut subsided a bit. He just needed to think rationally. Oikawa wouldn’t be taking anything that would alter his body. He loved volleyball too much for that. Hajime was just blowing things out of proportions.

“No use worrying about it.” He repeated, mumbling into his pillow.

Hajime didn’t sleep.


End file.
